Melanie Jonas
|} Melanie Jonas '''(nee Layton-Kiriakis)' is a fictional character on the NBC Soap Opera, ''Days of our Lives, created by head-writer Hogan Sheffer. She is portrayed by actress Molly Burnett.10 Burnett has played Melanie since, early 2008.10 Melanie was married in 2010 to Philip Kiriakis and had no children. They divorced in early 2011. She meets her brother Max Brady in 2008, who convinces her to return to Salem. Although Melanie was a former bad girl, she is now known as a caring and responsible young lady. Her former best friend, Stephanie Johnson, though, has become her arch-enemy. Melanie is extremely close to her BFF Maggie Horton, whom she often considers a mother to her. Melanie is good friends with Will Roberts-Horton, Gabi Hernandez, Sonny Kiriakis, Abby Deveraux and Chad DiMera. She is also close with Sami Brady and Rafe Hernandez. For her work as Melanie, Burnett has been nominated for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Daytime Drama.11 Character History Melanie Layton, the adoptive daughter of Trent Robbins and is the biological daughter of Carly Manning and Daniel Jonas. Melanie also has an maternal older half-brother Nicholas Alamain and adopted half-brother Max Brady and an uncle Frankie Brady (who's Carly's younger brother and Max's adopted brother). When she started on the show, she was living in a French Boarding School, known as a wild-party girl, with her own website about her glamorous life.12 She meets Nick Fallon in Marseilles, France where she is attending boarding school. Max Brady goes there with his girlfriend Stephanie Johnson in search of Melanie whom he believes to be his half sister, even though she doesn't know know about him.12 Nick, Max's friend, also goes to Marseilles where he sees Melanie in a cafe. Melanie overhears Nick on the phone (he is pretending to be making a business deal and pretending to be rich in order to catch her attention) and she goes to talk to him. Later, Trent pimps Melanie out to settle a debt, and Nick investigates to see what is up. Nick ends up getting shot trying to rescue her. She is grateful for his help and the two share a kiss in the hospital where Nick's ex-girlfriend Chelsea Brady looks on. Furious with her father, Max convinces Melanie to move to Salem with him.12 Melanie moves in with Max's adoptive mother, Caroline Brady. Trent is stabbed and Caroline Brady, Nicole DiMera and Melanie are all suspects. Melanie is cleared and moves in with Nick. Melanie soon begins receiving threatening notes and she starts to believe that maybe she had killed Trent. Nick convinces her to go away with him to a hotel where they will go to Vegas and get married. Nick convinces Melanie that she killed Trent and the only way for him to protect her is if they get married.12 While at the hotel, Melanie learns that it was Nick who killed Trent.13 Melanie's quick thinking allowed her to reach Stephanie, Phillip, Bo and Hope. They arrive at the conclusion of a fight between Nick and Melanie, where Nick drops Melanie off the balcony. Philip saves her while Nick is arrested for Trent's murder. Philip would come to Melanie's rescue several other times in the emotional aftermath of Nick's arrest. This is also the beginning of Melanie's infatuation with Philip.12 At Nick's trial, Melanie speaks up on his behalf. She says that although Nick killed her father, deep down, Nick is a good person. The judge says that Melanie's testimony is reason why Nick got a very light sentence. Nick also begs his aunt, Maggie Horton to let Melanie stay with her because Melanie has no one. Maggie reluctantly agrees. In time, however, Maggie becomes very fond of Melanie and the two are very close.12 Melanie then goes to work for Philip at Titan because Nick left her the rights to his alternative fuel project and she finds herself in the middle of a corporate war between Titan and the DiMera's. Philip, determined to keep the project, tells Melanie he loves her. They kiss while Stephanie oversees. Philip picks Melanie over Stephanie, an incident that begins a heated rivalry between the young women. However, Melanie soon learns that Philip is only after the fuels project. Melanie brings the project to the DiMera's where she was eventually scammed. Melanie becomes a candy striper at the hospital in Salem and eventually begins attending nursing school. Melanie is extremely jealous of Stephanie and Philip's relationship and she constantly is trying to break them up. She fails several times and it eventually seems that she will not give up. Because of the heated rivalry between the DiMera's and the Kiriakis's, EJ DiMera hires a hitman to kill Philip. When Philip is rushed to the hospital, Melanie is there to comfort Stephanie. Also due to the rivalry, Stephanie is kidnapped by the Kiriakis gardener, Owen. Melanie teams up with Philip to track Stephanie down. The two, along with the help of Brady Black, manages to rescue her, showing that Melanie is growing into a more adult and responsible person. Chelsea, Max's girlfriend, decides to move to London to be with her sick mother, Billie Reed. Max decides he is going to go with her and tells Melanie she should come too. She is excited to go with him and seconds after she quits her job at the hospital, she bumps into a handsome young doctor. He is later revealed to be Nathan Horton,14 the grandson of Maggie Horton and cousin of Nick Fallon. Melanie decides that she didn't want to go to London and Max soon realizes that Nathan is the reason that Melanie wants to stay. At home, Melanie is surprised to see Nathan there. She soon learns that he is Maggie's grandson and that he is moving in. They have a flirty relationship and the two agree to a date. However, Nathan soon realizes who Melanie is (he blames her for everything that happened to Nick) and he tells her he doesn't want anything to do with her. Nathan argues with Maggie over why Maggie would let Melanie stay there. Nathan feels guilty and reconciles with Melanie after he realizes that everything that happened with Nick wasn't her fault.12 Things are rocky for Nathan and Melanie at the beginning. Melanie is furious because, while Nathan and Melanie are on a date, Melanie is in the bathroom and Stephanie shows up. Melanie overhears the two making plans to hang out. Melanie then storms out. Nathan doesn't feel guilty about what happened, saying he and Stephanie did nothing wrong. Once again, Nathan and Melanie reconcile. When Melanie tells Nathan she wants to be more than friends he says no because he believes he has too much on his plate and Melanie might be a distraction. Heartbroken, Melanie and Philip (who convinced Melanie that he and Stephanie were over) spend the night at a motel where a seedy pornographer tapes them making love. Soon, Stephanie takes Philip back and Melanie is heartbroken when he begs her not to tell Stephanie. Soon, the pornographer puts the tape on the Internet, where Stephanie sees it while two girls are watching it at the hospital. Stephanie breaks off her engagement with Philip for the second and final time. After much hardship, Melanie moves on from Philip and starts dating Nathan, but Maggie disapproves of them being together and hospital policy says they can't date. They have having a Romeo-and-Juliet-style romance for a while. However, Philip eventually realizes that Melanie is the woman he wants to be with and he chases after her while she is dating Nathan. This makes Nathan angry and constantly paranoid and jealous of Philip. Soon, Melanie begins to have feelings for both Philip and Nathan. After Nathan sees Melanie about to kiss Philip he breaks up with her. Philip tells Melanie that he still had feelings for her and after seeing Nathan with Stephanie and hearing that they were going to spend Christmas together Melanie decides to give Philip a chance. They spend Christmas together where Philip proposes. She isn't sure about it, but when Melanie can't get the ring off of her finger, Philip says it was a sign that they are supposed to be together. She agrees to marry him. After Philip finds out that Nathan is at the house with Melanie, Philip begins to worry that Melanie might still have feelings for Nathan. As soon as Philip sees Melanie, he suggests that the two elope on New Years. Phillip and Melanie are married on Valentine's Day.15 Melanie and Phillip are later divorced in 2011, when she finds out that he slept with her father's wife, Chloe Jonas, and impregnated her. Now, Melanie seems to be sparking up a relationship with new Salem townie, Dario Hernandez (Rafe and Gabi's brother). She has also recently changed her last name to that of her father's (Jonas). In 2011, Melanie learned that Dario's new job requires him to move to Argentina and in September of 2011, Melanie and Dario shared an emotional farewell and she is comforted by Maggie Horton. Melanie's BFF, Abigail noticed how lonely she was without Dario, so she asked her boyfriend, Chad to dance with her. In October 2011, Melanie learned that her grandmother is Maggie Horton and was very overjoyed at the news. Relationships *Philip Kiriakis (divorced) *Nathan Horton (ex-boyfriend) *Dario Hernandez (boyfriend) Category:Days of our Lives characters